Development body Opportunity North East (ONE) is to nurture a new generation of digital savvy entrepreneurs and support systems for businesses with £4million of charity cash.
Oil and gas doyen and philanthropist Sir Ian Wood has financed the project with a donation from his Wood Foundation.
With the cash secured, the economic body has managed to set up a ‘digital board’ of leading businessmen and digital tsars to lead the technological upgrade over the next four years
The board, the fifth created since the inception of ONE in December 2015, has the task of kick-starting “the creation of digital businesses” in Aberdeen and Aberdeenshire.
Research identified a lack of digital entrepreneurs and business support in the region compared to other parts of the UK.
The top team is to help the region’s key industries in the private sector “embrace digital solutions to achieve growth”.
Sir Ian Wood is to chair the board during the first phase, with former Wood Group chief execuitve Bob Keiller as lead director for entrepreneurship and mentoring.
Graeme Gordon of internet provider IFB, and software supremos Neil Logan of Incremental Group and Phil Murray of Petrotechnics, join as vice-chairmen.
The rest of the board comprises Andy Bird of Innoapps; Sarah Forbes of Core 29/Peterson; Christian Arno of Lingo 24; Gary McEwan of Elevator; Adrian Gillespie of Scottish Enterprise; Susan Craw of Robert Gordon University; Bruce Scharlau of University of Aberdeen; Gillian Docherty of DataLab; Polly Purvis of ScotlandIS; Stephen Ashleyof The Oil & Gas Technology Centre; and Jennifer Craw from ONE.
A joint representative for Aberdeen City and Aberdeenshire Councils is to be confirmed.
Sir Ian said there was a “real opportunity” to develop a cluster of digital businesses in the region which can stimulate and accelerate growth.
He added: “There’s huge potential to develop a number of digital product companies and this will be a prime focus.
“However, there’s also great potential to develop and apply digital technology across all our key sectors in the north-east of Scotland.
Right now, our major oil and gas operators and tier one contractors are heavily investing in digital process improvement and automation which will greatly enhance their efficiency to recover more from the North Sea.
“But all our other sectors are increasingly looking for digital solutions to make them more competitive, both nationally and internationally.”